analysis / Symbolic
Motif
A short recurring melodic unit — an interval / contour cell that repeats across a line. Modeled transposition-invariantly as an interval pattern (successive semitone steps), so the same shape at a different pitch level is the same motif. The structural seed a theme is spun from: it abstracts a melody (note-sequence) down to its most salient repeating fragment. Discovered by scanning the line's intervals for sub-sequences that recur.
How it works
This object can carry concrete values or a musical interpretation, depending on its notation.
This describes or analyzes music; it may not directly specify playable notes.
Written forms
Ways to write this concept
Each notation describes the same underlying object. Open an example to see it in every other notation, or load it to hear one MIDI realization in the Code Sequencer.
intervals
Comma-separated semitone steps between successive notes (the transposition-invariant cell)
+2,+2,-10,+2,+2,+1
pitches
A concrete pitch snippet (a short melody) the cell was found in
60:1,62:1,64:1